Gość: Dawid
IP: *.cm-upc.chello.se
26.10.01, 19:57
Who is the Enemy?
Despite claims to the contrary by the leaders of the coalition and most of the
media, the present war is a conflict of culture and religion, and not only a
war on terrorism. This conclusion is based not on the ideas presented in Samuel
Huntington’s famous book ‘The Clash of Civilizations’, but on the presentation
of the conflict by the other side, the enemy. The night of the first strikes on
Afghanistan, all the world saw Osama bin Laden’s famous video message, in which
he stated: ‘these events have divided the world into two camps, the camp of the
faithful and the camp of infidels…Every Muslim must rise to defend his
religion. The wind of faith is blowing and the wind of change is blowing’.[1]
It will be argued that bin Laden represents only a tiny minority—the lunatic
fringe of the Islamic fundamentalist trend.
However, here I will argue that the “bin Laden phenomena” was made possible, on
the one hand, because of the strategic victories of Islamic states and the new
Islamist ideologies over the past three decades, and on the other hand, because
of the deficiencies and backwardness of the ruling regimes in the Muslim and
Arab world. A contributing factor was the shortsightedness and the rest of the
world, particularly the West, and the fear to see this phenomena for what it
was.
The victories that boosted the self-confidence of the Islamist leaders and
inflated the expectations of the Muslim masses have always been accompanied by
violence and terrorism.[2] Let us enumerate a few of these victories:
The oil crisis of 1972-73 enhanced the economic wealth and the strategic and
political bargaining power of the fundamentalist royal regimes in Saudi Arabia
and the smaller Gulf states, and those of the more radical Algerian and Libyan
regimes vis-a-vis the West and practically the entire non-oil producing world.
This was evident during the 1970’s and the beginning of the 1980’s, when
Palestinian and Arab terrorism acted almost freely in every corner of the
international arena without real punishment. These groups even received a bonus
at the UN, with the equation of Zionism with racism.
This was the era when Saudi and Libyan money built mosques and so-called
Islamic ‘cultural’ centers in Europe and other countries—centers and mosques
which later fell as ripe fruits under the control of more radical Islamist
elements, which used them for indoctrination, recruitment, funding and even
training.[3] This was also the beginning of the wave of aggressive Islamic
religious proselytism and propaganda based on oil-money in new areas of Africa,
Asia and even Europe, particularly in Spain and Italy, as well as among the
black population of the U.S.
The success of the Iranian Khomeinist revolution was the first ‘military’
victory over the U.S. and the Western world—as shown by the taking of the
American embassy staff hostage, and the ignominious U.S. rescue attempt. The
aggressive endeavor of the Ayatollahs’ regime to export this new revolutionary
Islamist ideology all over the Muslim world had a huge impact on all the
radical movements, not only in the Shi’a population but also in most of the
Sunni countries. [4]
The second real success of this ideology was the expulsion in 1983 of the U.S.
and French peace forces from Lebanon by the Iranian and Syrian backed
Hizballah, with the setting in motion of the strategy of massive suicide
attacks. [5] The ensuing kidnapping and assassination of Western nationals in
Lebanon during the 1980’s—without any punishment falling upon the Hizballah and
its masters—greatly boosted the self-confidence of Iran and Hizballah and fed
their aggression. Hizballah and its patron continued to be active in
international subversion and terrorism during the first half of the 1990’s, in
Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. [6]
The victory, at the end of the 1980s, of the Afghanis and the Arab and Muslim
volunteers fighting side by side against the Soviet Union gave an addition
boost, both moral and psychological, to the Islamist movements—but this time in
the larger Sunni world. Again, Saudi and Gulf money supported the Islamic
combatants, permitting the temporary removal of subversive elements from their
countries of origin. Ironically, the United States, using the Afghani conflict
in the bi-polar contest with the Communist block, had prepared the stage for
the new enemy of the Western democratic world.
The Gulf War, although seen as a great victory for the American-led coalition
of the moderate Arab regimes and the beginning of a ‘New World Order’, in fact
further exacerbated the radicalization of the Islamist movements. The War
highlighted the issue of the continued presence of American and Western armed
forces on the sacred ‘Peninsula of Mohammad,’ and the plight of the Iraqi
population.
Last, but not least, the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon,
in June 2000 was perceived as a brilliant strategic victory for the small
Hizballah guerrilla forces against the powerful IDF. This ‘victory’ enflamed
the hearts of millions of Arabs and Muslims with pride and hope for a rapid
destruction of Israel, and played a major role in the outbreak of the present
intifada.
The Islamist strategy of continual struggle against the West, the Muslim Soviet
republics, and Israel was devised immediately after the Afghani victory in 1988-
89. Neither the Gulf War, nor the crumbling of the Soviet empire, nor the peace
process between Israeli and Palestinians had anything to do with the decision
to continue the struggle worldwide. Some Palestinian ideologues, such as
Abdallah Azzam, were at the forefront of this strategy, but were not at all
involved in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.
The irony, again, is that most of this movement was organized and funded on
American soil and the U.S. authorities seemed blind in the face of what was
being prepared for the near future.[7]
It is known today that the assassin of the Israeli extremist rabbi Kahane, the
Egyptian Nousseir, acquitted in the first assassination trial, had in his
possession at the time of his arrest, the plans for the future attack on the
World Trade Center in 1993. These plans remained sealed and un-translated in an
FBI safe.
Although the present battle is led by the U.S., as a consequence of the
massacre of some 6000 American civilians in an act of war worse than Pearl
Harbor, I would like to stress that it is clear that the cultural/religious war
waged by the Islamists targets not only the rich and industrialized Western
countries, but all other ‘infidel’ religions, be they Hindus, Buddhists or
Confucians. The war in Kashmir, the radicalization of Muslim student
organizations in India, the Uighur struggle in the Chinese province of
Xingiang, the terrorist activities of the Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines,
the Chechen rebellion in Russia, are all part of the same trend. In a sense,
according to Islamic dogma, all other religions with the exception the
Christianity and Judaism, are completely rejected and cannot even
be ‘protected’ by Islam. The recent destruction of the Buddha statues in
Afghanistan by the Taliban regime is only one example of the Islamist attitude
towards these cultures. These organizations motivated by such a doctrine are
completely unlike the classical radical nationalist groups, such as the IRA in
Northern Ireland, the ETA in the Basque country in Spain, the PLO in Palestine,
or the Kurdish PKK in Turkey.
What is the Coalition?
From all of the foregoing, the question now arises, ca
